Tag Archives: low income

JACKSON — Groups supporting low-income Mississippi residents said yesterday that elected officials are ignoring 300,000 people and refusing billions of federal dollars by choosing not to expand Medicaid in one of the poorest states in the nation. If the state were to extend Medicaid, as allowed under the health overhaul that President Barack Obama signed into law, many low-wage workers ...

YAZOO CITY — Construction has begun on the redevelopment of Magnolia Crossing, an 86-unit housing development of single-family homes and duplexes for low-income families in Yazoo City. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) and Bank of Yazoo provided Magnolia Crossing a $460,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant to assist with the renovations. Each year, FHLB Dallas returns ...

JACKSON — The U.S. Department of Education will give Mississippi nearly $55,000 to help pay the costs of low-income high school students taking Advanced Placement and other exams that could help them earn college credit after accelerated high school classes. The money comes at a time when the number of Mississippi students taking advanced placement tests has fallen for two ...

JACKSON — Mississippi lawmakers adjourned their two-day special session late Friday after passing bills to keep Medicaid alive and funded for the new fiscal year that starts Monday. Republicans hold the majority in the House and Senate, and they blocked Democrats’ efforts to extend Medicaid to another 300,000 low-income people — additional coverage that is an option under the federal ...

JACKSON — Mississippi lawmakers appear to be on track to renew and fund Medicaid beyond this coming weekend, when the program is set to expire. In the opening day of a special session yesterday, the House voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize the existence of the program and to set its budget. Bills also must pass the Senate, which is expected to ...

JACKSON — Gov. Phil Bryant said today that he’s calling lawmakers into special session at 10 a.m. Thursday to keep the state’s Medicaid program alive and funded once the new state fiscal year begins July 1. The Republican is not asking lawmakers to expand Medicaid, which is an option under the federal health care law that President Barack Obama signed ...

JACKSON — Mississippi’s governor does not have the legal authority to operate the Division of Medicaid by executive order, Attorney General Jim Hood said in a nonbinding legal opinion issued Wednesday. The opinion from Hood, a Democrat, contradicts Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. The governor has said for weeks that he thinks he can run the program himself, even if lawmakers ...

GULFPORT — The Mississippi Development Authority intends for 51 percent of new jobs at the state port to be filled by low- to moderate-income residents. But the agency never said current jobs would meet that goal. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has raised concerns over job numbers. The Sun Herald reports MDA secured $570 million in HUD ...

AROUND MISSISSIPPI — Faith-based groups and advocates led by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU are asking Mississippi prison officials to drop plans to close four community work centers. Inmates in the centers do chores for local governments. The groups sent a letter to Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps this week, saying the work centers give inmates a chance ...

JACKSON — Democrats in the Mississippi Legislature are proposing a way to provide health coverage to about 300,000 people without expanding Medicaid. They say Mississippi should enact a plan similar to what Arkansas is proposing — using federal money to help low-income people buy private health insurance. About two-dozen Democrats from the House and Senate attended a news conference Wednesday ...